On Saturday, July 4th my husband, Stan Posner and I will be on the radio with Beta Wayne on CINQ-FM Radio Centreville Consumer. We will be discussing summer road trips: where to eat, sleep and have fun on Interstate 95 from Boston to Miami. The show will be podcast and available for a week on their website.
Location: 102.3 FM
Date and time: July 4th: 12:30-1 pm
www.radiocentreville.com
D’Électronique RYCO is closing its doors and moving back to head office (J. Sonic). So this weekend, during the final liquidation, you can score on electronic products as they would of course rather sell the stuff than have to pay to move the stuff. There’s 50″ Plasma HDTV TV’s for $689.99, ACL 37″ HDTV $399.99, 4-handset remote phones $68.99, GPS $99.99, home theatres 148.99, DVD camcorders $248.99, surveillance sets $288.99, 1.1 pi cu. 900-watt microwave ovens $59.99 and lots more of course.
Location: 3232 boul. St-Martin O., Laval
between: Chomedey Blvd. and Daniel Johnson Blvd.
Dates and Times Mar 19 & 20 10-9, Mar 21 10-5
I enjoy watching the trends in home decor and color, since art was my background before this gig. In reading an issue of New York magazine I came across their predictions of what was coming onto the horizon, so I thought I’d share some of them with you:
gray is the next chocolate brown
crystals are the next hot thing for lighting
brass is following chrome
trapezoids are replacing rectangles
wallpaper is coming back
lavender follows hot pink
ornate will eclipse sleek
op art has returned
cork is really big
velcro is replacing magnets
and making your own furniture is the next hot hobby (replacing knitting)
My husband and I wirte a travel book, called “Drive I-95:Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia” which is the bible for anyone driving South or North on the Eastern coast of the US from Boston to Maima. On Thursday morning at 8:10 am we will be on CJAD 800AM with Dan Laxer teaching you how to have fun on the drive.
Drive I-95 combines colorful easy to follow pictorial maps and fun stories, which eliminate the trepidation of a road trip down America’s busiest highway.
Travelers look ahead exit by exit to see which motels and gas stations are coming up, where the radar traps are, or where to stop for a good homemade meal. The drive from Boston to Miami becomes more pleasant and less stressful by knowing where to find 24-hour gas stations and pharmacies, campgrounds, 800-phone numbers for motel chains (and which take pets), golf courses and even which radio stations to tune to.
We share stories of the road: history that happened on it, quirky museums worth a visit, Americana trivia, small towns to explore or places to run with the kids. These can be read for entertainment during the drive and may entice motorists to stop stretch their legs and discover someplace new. www.drivei95.com
As usual, I’ve gathered together some interesting ideas for gifts for the holidays and will be showing and talking about them on television and radio. On Monday December 17th, look for me on CTV News with Todd Van Der Hayden at around 12:35 p.m. or a few minutes after.
On Wednesday, December 19th, I’ll be shooting the breeze for an hour with Tommy Schnurmacher on CJAD 800 AM , from 10 am – 11 am about last minute gift ideas. You can call in to that show 514-790-0991. If you miss them, you can find everything I talked about in my column on this site.
If any of you are near a boob tube during lunchtime, I will be appearing (with my husband) on CTV with Todd Van Der Heyden today after 12:30 p.m. We will be talking about our “Drive I-95: Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia” book.
If you (or anyone you know) are ever planning to drive South towards Florida, this book has pictorial maps, motels, radar traps, homemade food, 24-hour gas stations and pharmacies, 800-numbers for motels (and ones who take pets), golf courses and radio stations to tune to.
The fun stories about quirky museums, Americana trivia, towns to explore can be read for entertainment during the drive or may entice you to stop, stretch your legs and discover someplace new. www.drivei95.com
Luddites will not be interested in this column. Enjoy the rest of your Gazette. In fact, even I don’t really enjoy going to these stores. However the techies out there, the guys (mostly) who love to tinker with electronic objects, will be grabbing their plastic and running out the door.
You might be interested to know that there are supermarkets that don’t include food. These stores are full of aisles of (mostly) black things that give fix-it junkies a high – and they’re legal. The first two shops below (Addison Electronics and Access Electronics) buy bales of whatchamacallits and sell them in rows and rows of neatly lined up and identified boxes (not that that helps me). The inventory is there until they are all sold out, which could take up to a year for some things. So there is turnover in the stock, although I must admit that it always looks the same to me. There is also a core of stock items that always sell, and the last store, Active, works in this way.I do like the idea that things can be fixed and saved.
And I have a family made up of male geeks who think stores like these are the be-all and end-all. Thank goodness they can help me plug in.
Addison Electronics, 8018 20th Avenue at Jarry St. Phone: 514-376-1740. Hours: Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This double store sells surplus and bankruptcy deals, and is an electronic buff’s idea of heaven. The main room is a supermarket of mechanical and electronic parts for CB’s, sound systems, TV’s, computers, antennas, burglar alarms (residential and commercial), DVD, MP3 and MP4 players and phones. The audio department is being renovated. The depot on the left has more computer oriented thing-a-ma-jigs: power supplies, boards, switches, pins, cables, fans, resistors, connectors, etc. Other smaller locations with higher prices: Terrebonne, 1750 ch. Gascogne (450-964-4499); Point-aux Trembles, 11,990 Sherbrooke E. (514-640-7799).
Acces Electronique, 43B Brunswick Blvd. at Des Sources Blvd., Dollard des Ormeaux. Phone: 514-421-2755. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sun 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. http://www.acceselectronique.ca Handy guys swoon when they see this large airy store full of specialty electronic parts. High end, better quality cables (audio, video, computer, speakers, electric, etc.), 38 varieties of cell phone and camera batteries and chargers too, hubs, routers, speaker boxes, fans, rolls and rolls of wire, miniature cameras, DVD burners, telephone jacks, parts for alarm systems, car audio, soldering tools and satellite accessories are all here to play with. The store also installs car audio equipment and does some computer repairs. Just around now, they will be adding industrial and commercial surplus to this mix: water pumps, relays, capacitors to run motors, switches and many other items in this genre.
Active Tech Electroniques, 5349 Ferrier St. at Decarie Blvd. Phone: 514-731-7441. Hours: Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Winter Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) http://ww.active-tech.ca. Though our world has only been conscious of the electronic revolution more recently, this company has been open since 1971 and has nine stores in Canada. Electronic technicians, hobbyists and students are the main shoppers here. They inventory at least 7,500 parts in stock and warehouse thousands more. The aisles of whatchamacallits: cables, connectors, fans, wires, switches, chips for boards, diodes, resistors and transistors for audio and sound are for testing, repair, design, research and development. They sell the industry’s leading suppliers such as Fluke, Tektronix, Cooper Tools, Kester, Loctite, Hammond, Mode, Startech, NTE. Other location: 6080 Metropolitain East (514-256-7538).
Seven years ago when I first wrote a column about re-filling computer printer cartridges, it was like searching for an underground illicit society. At that time, we were brainwashed into thinking that if we didn’t buy brand new cartridges each time we needed them, we would ruin our machines.
Since then, we’ve gotten both smarter and more eco-friendly, and at the same time stores that sell re-furbished cartridges (for both ink and laser printers) are popping up all over the city. You can bring them in and get them refilled or you can buy the inks and learn to refill them yourselves.
In order to be able to get cartridges refilled however, there are some basics to be aware of for ink cartridges. If you replace an ink cartridge with a spare one, don’t just stick it in a drawer until you have a moment to get it replenished, since the inks dry out. At the very least, put the cartridge along with a moist paper towel into a sealed plastic bag. Interestingly, putting it in the fridge (in the bag) at this point is the best case scenario.
When the printer warning light indicates that you are about to run out of ink, don’t keep going until the well runs dry. The reason for this is that many cartridges have the print head right on the cartridge. The ink acts as a coolant for that head. If the ink runs out you can damage the head by burning out some of the little ink nozzles. If this happens, it is no longer refillable and you must buy a new one. Also, if your print head is on the cartridge, the technicians who do the re-filling can also clean the head and fix problems.
But that low level warning is set at a different level for every printer. Sometimes there is still between 3 and 5% of ink left (or more!), so there is a little bit of wiggle room. The real test is to look at the print coming out, and when it starts to deteriorate, you know you must, at that point, stop using the cartridge.
Not all printer cartridges can be refilled by the after-market dealers below. Their companies spend lots of time figuring out the chemical recipe for each printer – both for the ink and its viscosity. Some printers are not worth the company’s time to develop the ink, so cartridges may not be available. Therefore, no matter how good the deal in the flyer looks for a printer, before you buy you might want to find out if that machine’s cartridge is refillable by these dealers. Otherwise you may be stuck buying at full price from the manufacturer.
Cartridge World, 4808 Pierrefonds Blvd. at Harry Worth St. Phone: 514-626-3455. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is a franchise operation run by a friendly husband and wife team. They sell new cartridges and refill ink and laser ones. The company uses quality OCP inks from Germany, and in order to be able to match the needs of different printers, they come in about 170 different viscosities. When you buy a cartridge here, it has been test printed to make sure it will work on your machine, and they replace broken cartridge components after performing a stress test. http://www.cartridgeworld.ca
I-matek, 539 Lepine Ave. at Guthrie St., Dorval. Phone: 514-636-5211. Hours: Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This was the first company I found re-filling cartridges. You can save 80% on the cost of your ink jet printer cartridges (Epson, Lexmark, Canon, HP) by learning how to fill them yourselves. Average costs of buying a new ink jet cartridge would be $30 – $50, but refilling costs only $2-$8 Bring your cartridge in and these friendly people will demystify the process, show you how to do it and sell you the kit you need. Laser cartridges can also be refilled by this company for about half the price of a new one. http://www.i-matek.ca
Micro-Jet Technologies, 5512 Sherbrooke St. West at Girouard Ave. Phone: 514-487-4657. Hours: Monday to Friday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. This shop specializes in cartridges for printers (brother, HP, Lexmark, Canon, Epson) and can special order any that they don’t have. New and already re-cycled laser and ink-jet cartridges are available along with kits to do it yourself. Their re-manufactured ink cartridges are machine filled. Photocopy, fax and thermal paper round out the inventory. If you have empty cartridges, you can bring them here, since they donate the value to the NDG minor baseball league.
Island Ink-Jet, Centre Laval, 1600 Le Courbusier Blvd. at St.Martin Blvd. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sun 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This franchise chain has little kiosks in malls, and markets a broad range of aftermarket ink-jet and laser printing products. These include ink-jet refill services, do-it-yourself refill kits, compatible ink-jet cartridges and re-manufactured laser toner cartridges. Other locations: 5181 St. Laurent Blvd. (514-278-7658); Plaza Cote des Neiges (514-739-6193); 5400 Jean Talon St. W. (514-344-4096); Plaza Alexis Nihon (514-846-3377); Carrefour Angrignon (514-595-4655); Centre Laval (450-680-1538); Place Vertu (514-335-9645); Mail Champlain (450-671-5100: Fairview Pointe Claire (514-694-4555).
Since the Bank of Montreal has its legal fair starting today, I thought that this week I would offer, besides their interesting event, a couple of other suggestions about where to find free or almost free legal advice and legal help throughout the year. The law is very complicated for the average person to understand. There are times when you will need to sit down with someone to get some legal assistance to face decisions you may have to make. It might be anything from separation or divorce to a quarrel with a neighbor over your property to the setting up of a new home business or estate planning.
I wonder how many of you know that we have a Montreal Ombudsman office. It has been open for about four years, and offers a friendly ear to help citizens with their rights involving city services, para-municipal organizations and city controlled corporations. Your own borough is the first place you should be going to for your problems, since the Ombudsman is the place of last resort.
Lawyers are very expensive, but there are social agencies that make it possible for you to have time with legally educated people at very little cost. McGill University has had, for over three decades, a legal information clinic. Organizations like the Women’s YWCA have lawyers on hand during certain hours who can help you sort out your problems. You would be surprised, if you just took the time to ask around at other community agencies in your own neighborhood, what legal advice you could find at reasonable rates.
The Bar of Montreal Salon, Grande Place of the Complexe Desjardins, 150 Ste. Catherine St. W at Jeanne Mance. Dates: Tuesday April 17 to Friday April 20. Hours: 9:30 a,m, to 4:30 p.m. Phone: 514-866-9392. Address the rest of the year: 1 Notre Dame St. East, Suite 9.80. Each April for the past ten years, the public and community organizations that work in connection with the justice system have gathered together in April to help the public better understand the legal system. Not only is the entrance Free, but the most popular activity is the Free legal consultations, where you are able to ask questions about starting a company, writing a will, recouping money owed, etc. Last year there were over eight hundred consultations during these three days. Don’t forget to bring all the documents related to your problem. During the event there are mock trials, theatrical activities, quizzes and over thirty exhibitors to check out. This year, since it is the tenth anniversary of the Salon and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Charter of Rights, they will be serving a celebratory cake on Tuesday morning. At 11 a.m. on Tuesday there will be a mock trial comparing crime sentencing between the 18th century and today. The same day at 12:30 p.m. there will be a debate featuring Julius Grey. www.barreaudemontreal.qc.ca
Montreal Ombudsman office, 275 Notre Dame St. E., Suite R100 at Gosford St. Phone: 514-872-8999. Hours: Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., ombudsman@ville.montreal.qc.ca This office is the guardian of our Montreal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities, which has been around since January 1, 2006. The charter states in writing the principles that guide our actions in the city. If your own borough fails you in your quest to solve a problem, this office is your last resort. There are seven full time employees along with Johanne Savard, who is our very own ombudsman (or is that ombudswoman?).
McGill Legal Information Clinic, 3480 McTavish St., Room 107 at Sherbrooke St. Phone: 514-398-6792. Hours: Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and then 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (closed from December to the second week in January, during Spring break and exam time). For the past thirty-three years, questions regarding your legal rights, ranging from leases to marriage contracts, human rights and immigration have been answered by law students. Remember – they can only give you referrals and legal information, not legal advice. Community groups can ask for a student to give a seminar on topics from tenants’ rights to family law, etc. www.mlic.mcgill.ca
Women’s Y of Montreal, 1355 Rene Levesque Blvd. West at Crescent St. Phone: 514-866-9941 ext. 293. Hours: Monday to Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., by appointment. You don’t have to be female to use this inexpensive ($5 for 30 minutes) service offering legal information. Income level is not a consideration either. There is a rotating group of about fifteen lawyers and two notaries Appointments are necessary.
These days, decorating a new baby’s room or a child’s room goes way beyond painting the walls yellow, pink or blue, buying a crib, rocking chair and changing table and putting a couple of cute pictures on the wall. This is serious business now.
The decorating shows have led us to believe that we can all do it. With glue gun, paint brush, stencils and endless trips to the arts and crafts store, we can make it a wonderland for our child. You just need to think up a theme and go for it.
There are some creative women who have been on this bandwagon for years and have made a business out of their golden hands. Kathi MacNeil-Mousoulis of Thimbelina often knows the sex of babies before the parents. Though the information is available at the time of ultrasound test, many parents still want it to be a surprise to them until the birth. So in order to keep it a secret, yet still be prepared for the baby’s arrival, the parents are handed a sealed envelope (from the test results) with the sex written inside it.
Alternative color choices for boys and girls are then made, and Kathi takes the one that coincides with the medical info. Another option is to pick a neutral shade of green, and then when the baby arrives add pinks and blues to the color scheme. These days, however, brown is the new green, so that has become the basic color with pink and blues added later.
Another long-lasting idea is to make up a patchwork quilt with many colors, and then as each child comes along, pass the blanket down from kid to kid and just select another color from the quilt to accessorize the room.
Baby’s Breath & Holly, 5122A Sherbrooke St. West at Grey Ave., Westmount. Phone: 514-744-8133. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. When it’s time to set up the perfect nursery, come here for this creative woman’s help to coordinate and design your look using baby bedding, mink blankets and crib skirts, pillows, gingham lamps, crystal chandeliers and shabby chic frames filled with mirrors or bulletin boards. Hand-made and personalized baby gifts abound – rocking chairs, hampers, toy chests, doll’s high chairs, coat racks, Moses’ baskets and monogrammed hats, towels, bathrobes, cardigans, sun dresses, etc. A baby registry can be set up.
Thimbelina, 4937C Sherbrooke St. West at Claremont Ave., Westmount. Phone: 514-484-0954. Hours: Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday by appointment. If you like the personal touch for a child’s room (or yours), this creative shop can do personalized sewing, painting and carpentry for the room. You can select hand-painted dressers, step stools, laundry hampers, clothes hooks and growth charts. They can custom-make towels, bathrobes, curtains and bedding, and even nursing pillows for the momma. These creations can be made for the rest of the family too – just bring in a swatch of fabric from your decor and they can match up everything from shelves to mailboxes. www.thimbelina.ca
Ange Neige, 251 Rachel St. Est at Laval Ave. Phone: 514-845-2643. Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m, Thursday and Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. We all know that our kids are angels (at least when they are born), so why not go with an angel theme for the room? Angels here run from scarves and photo albums to lamps and jewelry. Play with angel puzzles or learn about them with angel books and tapes. Dress up your kid’s room (or your house) with tapestries, ceramic bowls, mirrors, throws and night lights. You can even buy angel teddy bears – stuffed or made out of wood. When the angel is asleep, plan a special dinner-for-two with angel cards, and set the table with angel wine glasses and candlesticks. www.angeneige.com